pennyspoetryfandomcom-20200214-history
Frederick Seidel
Frederick Seidel (born February 19, 1936) is an American poet. Life Seidel was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated from Harvard University in 1957.Frederick Seidel, Poets.org, Academy of American Poets. Web, Feb. 10, 2015. In 1962, his debut collection, Final Solutions, was chosen by a jury of Louise Bogan, Stanley Kunitz, and Robert Lowell for an award sponsored by the 92nd Street Y, with a $1,500 prize. However, both the association and the publisher rejected the manuscript for a variety of reasons; including ing that (in their opinion) "matter in one of the poems libeled a noted living person"; and that the national head of the YMHA/YWHA expressed concern that some of the poems were "anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic," a claim Seidel considered preposterous. When Seidel refused to make requested changes to his work, the prize was withdrawn and the promise of publication revoked. Bogan, Kunitz, and Lowell resigned in protest.Frederick Seidel b. 1936, Poetry Foundation, Web, Dec. 1, 2012. This incident, in which Seidel's poetry offended readers, was a defining moment in his career, that he would repeat in subsequent books by consciously trying to offend – or at least, to shock – his readers (although none of his subsequent books caused anywhere near the same degree of controversy that his earliest book did). Random House published the book the following year, but 17 years would pass before Seidel published another work. His collection, The Cosmos Poems, was commissioned by the American Museum of Natural History to celebrate the opening of the new Hayden Planetarium in 2000. and A limited run of new verse, Evening Man was published in 2008. The following year saw the publication of the career-spanning anthology Poems,1959-2009. Writing In response to the publication of his Collected Poems, the New York Times magazine wrote a long piece on the poet, calling Seidel the "Laureate of the Louche," and Seidel has earned similar labels from other journalists. For instance, New York Times book reviewer David Orr, in his review of Poems: 1959-2009, wrote, "is one of poetry's few scary characters." Seidel is frequently characterized as such, in part, because, in his writing, he often makes use of violent and disturbing sexual imagery and presents himself as a rather unlikeable aesthete who embraces his own "elite" brand of materialism (extolling, for instance, his love of Ducati motorcycles and handmade shoes). However, Seidel often ironizes this persona, pushing it to cartoonish extremes. Seidel also writes poems that comment on contemporary events and are political/satirical (as is his poem "Bush's War"). His work is also notable in that he frequently makes use of rhyme and meter (both regular and irregular). One of Seidel's earliest influences was Robert Lowell. Seidel has stated that, "the influence of Lowell [in Final Solutions was] unmistakable." However, critic Richard Poirier noted that Seidel had broken free of this influence by the time that he published Sunrise. Recognition Seidel's 2nd book, Sunrise, was the 1980 Lamont Poetry Selection. His book Going Fast was a finalist for the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He won the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry in 2002. His collection Ooga-Booga was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and was shortlisted for the 2007 International Griffin Poetry Prize. Publications Poetry * Final Solutions: Poems. New York: Random House, 1963. * Sunrise: Poems. New York: Viking, 1980; Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1980. * Men and Woman: New and selected poems. London: Chatto & Windus / Hogarth Press, 1984. * Poems, 1959-1979. New York: Knopf, 1989. * These Days: New poems. New York: Knopf, 1989. * My Tokyo: Poems. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1993. * Going Fast: Poems. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1998. * The Cosmos Poems (illustrated by Anselm Kiefer). New York: Farrar, Straus, 2000. * Life on Earth. New York: Farrar, Straus, 2001. * Area Code 212. New York, Farrar, Straus, 2002. * The Cosmos Trilogy. New York: Farrar, Straus, 2003. * Ooga-Booga. New York: Farrar, Straus, 2006. *''Selected Poems''. London: Faber, 2006. * Evening Man. New York: Farrar, Straus, 2008. * Poems, 1959-2009. New York: Farrar, Straus, 2009. *''Nice Weather''. New York: Farrar, Straus, 2012. *''Widening Income Inequality: Poems''. New York: Farrar, Straus, 2016. Edited * Paris Review, 1960-1961. advisory editor, 1962- . Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Frederick Seidel, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Nov. 22, 2015. Audio / video *''Poetry Reading'' (tape). Cambridge, MA: Woodberry Room, Harvard College Library, 1961. See also *List of U.S. poets References *Source: Contemporary Authors Online. The Gale Group, 2002. PEN (Permanent Entry Number): 0000089250. Notes External links ;Poems *"Downtown" *Frederick Seidel profile and 1 poem at the Academy of American Poets. *The Cosmos Poems (2 poems) *Five Poems at The Paris Review *Frederick Seidel b. 1936 at the Poetry Foundation. ;Audio / video *[http://www.griffinpoetryprize.com/awards-and-poets/shortlists/2007-shortlist/frederick-seidel/ Griffin Poetry Prize biography, including video clip of a reading from Barbados] *Frederick Seidel at YouTube ;Books *Frederick Seidel at Amazon.com ;About *Frederick Seidel Author page at Macmillan. *"Laureate of the Louche," New York Times Magazine * *[http://www.cprw.com/Hilbert/seidel.htm review of Ooga-Booga] by Ernest Hilbert *[http://harvardmagazine.com/2009/11/frederick-seidel-poems-reviewed-by-adam-kirsch review of Poems, 1959-2009] by Adam Kirsch Category:American poets Category:Jewish American writers Category:Writers from Missouri Category:Harvard University alumni Category:People from St. Louis, Missouri Category:1936 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century poets Category:21st-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Jewish poets Category:Poets